Transverse Skidding

Jurong Shipyard took its successful Load-out and Mating-in-Dock innovation further by developing the ingenious Transverse Skidding Method. The combination of these two methods would allow multiple rigs to be constructed simultaneously and assembled sequentially in a safe, secure manner at a relatively low cost. Prior to that, only one semi-submersible could be constructed at any one time.

The yard applied its newly developed “Transverse Skidding” technique together with its breakthrough “Load-out & Mating-in-Dock” process for the fast-track construction of two sixth-generation semi-submersible rigs, West Sirius and West Taurus, for Norway’s Seadrill.

The first rig unit, West Sirius, was successfully assembled in the second quarter of 2007 using the “Load-out & Mating-in-Dock” technique. Here, the rig’s upper hull was built on a skid truss on reinforced land and skidded over and mated with its lower hull in the drydock. The “Transverse Skidding” technique was then used to transfer the upper hull of the second semi-submersible rig, West Taurus, onto the withdrawn skid truss via a side-skidding process in preparation for its load-out and mating operation

The combination of these two processes enabled multiple rigs to be constructed simultaneously and assembled sequentially in a safe and secure manner at relatively lower cost. The “Transverse Skidding” process further improved on the original “Load-out & Mating-in-Dock” technique which allowed only one semi-submersible to be built at a time.